Saturday, December 13, 2014

Who is Spying on Norway?

Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten has discovered evidence of a massive organised surveillance operation which appears to be aimed at eavesdropping on phone calls and tracking the movements of Norwegian government ministers and officials.

The newspaper has mapped the locations of false mobile phone base stations, called IMSI catchers, which surround the Prime Minister's office, the Norwegian Parliament and the Ministry of Defence. IMSI catchers are used to track the movements of mobile phone users and listening in on mobile communications. In an article, entitled Aftenposten Reveals Mobile Espionage, the newspaper has used the Leaflet.js mapping platform to visualize the locations of the IMSI catchers that the paper has uncovered in central Oslo.

The extent of the network of IMSI catchers and the obvious expence of the equipment used has led Aftenposten to assume that the spying must be the work of a foreign intelligence agency, a large criminal gang or a large private enterprise involved in industrial espionage.